1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to the field of document administration within a data processing system and in particular to the field of document administration utilizing associated iconic representations. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method whereby a graphical or image representation of a textual document may be stored at a separate memory location and associated with a textual document by means of a reference or pointer contained within an associated descriptive profile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Graphic or iconic representation of applications, functions or files is well known in the prior art. Specifically, many multi-tasking applications permit background applications to be "tokenized", or displayed as miniature graphic representations so that the user may be kept aware of the presence and functioning nature of these applications. Additionally, certain of these applications permit an iconic representation to be created in association with an application or document.
The aforementioned graphic representations are generally created as either graphical or bit image representations; however, after associating such a graphic representation with a document or application the future transmission of that document is effectively restricted to only those recipients having the capability of supporting the graphical or bit image representation. In this manner, if an iconic or graphic representation of a document is desired a number of users within the system may be precluded from utilizing the document.
In view of the above it should be apparent that a need exists for a method whereby an iconic representation may be associated with a document without requiring all users of the document to support graphical or bit image representations.